H. S. Dedrick of Little Walnut township, belongs to a pioneer family of Butler county. He was born in Logan township in 1877, and was educated in the district scchools,[sic] and the Leon High School, and made Leon his home from 1894 to 1914, when he married Miss Grace Marshall, a daughter of the late H. H. Marshall, of Little Walnut township, and since that time has been engaged in farming and stock raising on the Marshall homestead in Little Walnut township.

H. S. Dedrick is a son of J. J. and Mary (Dow) Dedrick, the former a native of New York and the latter of Illinois. J. J. Dedrick was born in 1842, and is a son of N. J. and Margaret (Dormoth) Dedrick. The father was a captain on a packet on the Erie Canal, and his father was a very early settler in the State of New York, and held a land grant from Queen Anne in the early days. The Dedrick family originally came from Germany. J. J. Dedrick was one of a family of four children born to N. J. and Margaret (Dormoth) Dedrick, as follows: Nelson, Leon, Kans.; Mrs. Elmira Elmore, South Bend, Ind.; Mrs. Mary Mitchell, South Elgin, Ill.; and J. J. Mary Dow, wife of J. J. Dedrick is a daughter of Stephen Dow, who was a prosperous Illinois farmer, and her mother bore the maiden name of Arnold and was of English descent. To J. J. Dedrick and wife have been born six children, as follows: William C., born in 1873, resides at Leon, Kans.; Nelson A., born in 1875;

Hiram S., born in 1877; Mrs. Linda L. Marshall, born in 1881; Edwin E., born in 1884, and Margaret A., born in 1887, all residing in the vicinity of Leon, Kans.

J. J. Dedrick came to Butler county in 1872 and homesteaded government land, and since that time has been one of the successful farmers and stock raisers of Logan township. When he came here and began farming many discouraging features confronted him. Like the other pioneers he was a long distance from market, and that meant poor prices for his farm produce. Wichita was the nearest railroad point for a long time. He remembers having sold hogs, as low as two and a half cents per pound, and often hauled corn to market, which he sold for fifteen cents per bushel. He experienced the many discouraging features of drouth and crop failures in the early days, and when the grasshoppers came in 1874, they ate every vestige of vegetation on his place, except the sugar cane, and the winter that followed that devastation was a hard one, and one to be remembered by the Kansas pioneers. Although Mr. Dedrick says that he always had plenty to eat since he came to Butler county, sometimes in the early days, the variety was not great, but that he never had less than one article of food on the bill of fare, and that cornbread and black molasses were not bad when there was nothing else to be had.

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